Escape from a Nazi firing squad: Handcuffed and led into the woods at dawn, two SAS men prepared to die...
Escape from a Nazi firing squad: Handcuffed and led into the woods at dawn, two SAS men prepared to die... It was approaching dawn on August 9, 1944 and the seven prisoners of war caught operating behind enemy lines in German-occupied France thought they knew their fate. After weeks of imprisonment, including brutal interrogation at the hands of the Gestapo, their end was near. German SS men, armed with automatic weapons, led the seven SAS men, all of whom were in handcuffs, from a lorry to a clearing some 100 yards into a wood. 'Are we going to be shot?' asked Corporal Jean Dupontel, one of the prisoners. 'Of course you're going to be shot. What do you think this is, a picnic?' said one of the guards, with a snigger. Dupontel, who was dark-haired and slightly built, had spent the previous three years serving in the British Armed Forces. Now he had been weakened by torture and a lack of food. He was also so scared that his knees began to tremble and he half fell ...